The fantastic mobile version of 7 Wonders just got updated with an expansion that adds Leaders to the game. This new content adds a whole layer of depth to the game, but before you spend $1.99 to buy it blindly, check out this breakdown of exactly what you’ll be paying for:

What do you get?

In the 7 Wonders expansion, you get access to the content from the board game’s Leaders Expansion. What this means is you have access to a whole new type of card (i.e. Leaders), a new Wonder, and four new Guild cards to play with. In all, you get 40 new cards in the form of 36 Leaders, which can give you special bonuses in each game, Guilds that build off of the Leaders cards, and the ability to play as Rome, who’s wonder also plays into Leader mechanics. All in all, it’s a pretty hefty addition.

How do Leaders Work?

7 Wonders is a card drafting game, and this doesn’t necessarily change with the addition of Leaders. The only thing that’s different is that there is a new phase at the beginning of a game where players draft four Leaders to potentially use in the game, as well as a phase at the beginning of each Age for you to choose which Leaders to employ. These Leaders grant bonuses that can range anywhere from giving you bonus Victory Points for winning Military Conflicts to outright giving you a static amount of Victory Points just for having them. Careful usage of these Leaders can be your key to victory, but you have to choose your Leaders wisely and deploy them at the right times.

Leader Strategies

It’s not quite possible to say that there is one, strongest strategy in terms of deploying Leaders, as their selection is different in every game, as is the Wonder you’re playing as. That being said, there are a few things to keep in mind as a general rule of thumb. The first is that if you’re playing as Rome, the new Wonder added to this expansion, you should seek to use Leaders as much as possible, as your advantage is that deploying Leaders costs you nothing. Second, if you see two leaders (i.e. Alexander and Nero) that grant bonuses in the same area (i.e. Combat), you can create a huge advantage when it comes to certain paths to Victory (i.e. Military Conflicts). Finally, if you’re ever just totally unsure of which Leader to pick in a game, it’s hard to go wrong with Bilkis, as she lets you focus less on resources while also not having to feed money to other players.

Is it worth it?

The Leaders addition to 7 Wonders definitely adds a whole new layer to the game that can make things a heck of a lot more interesting, so I’d say it’s worth picking up. It’s also worth noting that there are definitely players still playing the game online, so it’s not hard to match into games and play the expansion multiplayer.